Business

Cinnamon Inc. secures $15 mn in Series B funding

Cinnamon Inc., a Tokyo and Vietnam-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, announced on January 28 it has secured $15 million in Series B funding to support its expansion into the US.

Cinnamon’s AI-powered cognitive document reader understands intent and context and can quickly and accurately transform the most complex unstructured business documents into database-ready content regardless of the original source - handwritten or text data.

“We are strengthening several areas of the company to handle our growth,” said Ms. Miku Hirano, CEO of Cinnamon Inc. “Our initial objectives in the US include the establishment of the company as a technology presence in Silicon Valley while adding to our core development group and on-boarding a US sales team. Building a strong investor structure to drive this expansion has been a key part of our strategy, helping us to continue to create new and enhanced AI technology like voice recognition. We are pleased to have secured this final second round of investment from such an esteemed group of investors.”

With this new Series B investment, Cinnamon will continue to enhance its AI platform and build products to drive business process re-engineering for large corporations. With the addition of Mr. Takeshi Niinami, Suntory Holdings CEO, as an advisor, Cinnamon is set to continue to collaborate with its channel partners to provide solutions to serve its global customers.

“The AI industry has transformed society, but ‘resourcefulness’ is important to utilize those advanced technologies to society,” Mr. Niinami said. “People need to make more creative works and have more vibrant lives by utilizing the power of AI. I look forward to contributing to the fulfillment of Cinnamon’s mission, which pursues the realization of such a society.”

Established in 2016, the startup has 60 highly-skilled Vietnamese engineers focusing on researching and developing AI products in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Da Lat. The startup will develop 200 engineers in researching and developing high technology in Vietnam by the end of 2019.